Seattle ICE official worries they won’t get notified if criminals land in local jails

ICE recently deported Eduardo Flores-Rodriguez from Seattle for luring a minor, who had previously come into this country illegally, as well as Arturo Rodriguez Rodriguez, a convicted murderer. Seattle ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Field Office Director (FOD) Nathalie Asher joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH to discuss the process.

“I want to be clear on the only way in which we were informed as to how these individuals came into our custody. These individuals, because of their particularly egregious crimes, were in the Washington Department of Corrections system. And that is the one entity that has been excluded from the Keep Washington Working act; they are able to notify us of the releases of these criminal aliens,” she said.

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“So that is why we have been able to affect these removals. We were successful in working with our law enforcement partners, getting the notification, having these individuals coming in to come to our custody, and we were able to affect their removal.”

Her concern is that criminals may get back into the country, and that ICE will not receive such a notification if they wind up in a local jail.

“But guess what’s gonna happen? They’re going to come back – this is where they’re established, clearly they’re career criminals — in the event that they reoffend again and if they go into a local jail, that is where the problem lies. Because it’s the local jails that cannot notify us that this guy has come to into their custody,” she said.

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“And therefore ICE will have no knowledge of this individual back in the country having violated their deportation order. And more often than not, these types will then be rereleased into the community. And here we are again, at this point where this could have been avoided or can be avoided when they do come back, if the locals could notify us. Instead, they’ll be released back into the community only to prey on their own and the cycle repeats itself over and over again.”

As Jason asked, with instances of catching these individuals who are coming back into the country illegally, what is being done about border security?

“Unfortunately, these types of decisions and laws that are passed do make this area attractive to criminal aliens who they want to come back in the country and do not have to worry about watching their back. Because they know that, ironically, the law is on their side,” she said.

“While we have been very successful, and of late I think we’ve removed at least four particularly egregious criminal aliens from the country. But it’s because they were from Department of Correction notification transfers. And undoubtedly, there are these individuals who will return to the country to reoffend, and until they commit a graduated, egregious crime that would somehow land them into the Department of Corrections, ICE will have no knowledge, knowing that these people are back here and definitely public safety risks.”

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.